The present invention relates to data bit error management and to a structure for, and method of, assembling a data packet.
Whenever binary data is transmitted, there exists the possibility of an error being introduced to the data during transmission. For this reason, various error detection and error correction schemes exist. One area where errors during transmission can cause difficulties is where the data is packetised. In systems that communicate data serially and asynchronously, the data is typically embedded in packets, with packets being transmitted whenever there is data to send. A packet normally has a packet header, followed by the data which is the payload of the packet, and possibly terminating in a packet footer. The header provides some information about the packet as, for example, the source of the packet, or the type of data included in the packet. If a packet which is received differs from the packet that was sent and this is detected by an error detecting scheme, the receiver may discard the corrupted packet and send a re-try request to the transmitter. However, forcing a re-try slows data throughput. Further, an error which corrupts a packet in such a way that the end of the packet is not detected may cause particular problems.
This invention seeks to provide an improved approach for managing errors in data communications.